Another quick post by Br'er Liar

So a favored nurse Mindy had the 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift today. In a transparent attempt to part on a bad note to make up for her otherwise sterling behavior in the past week, Mindy waited until near the end of her shift to remove the urinary catheter. Did everyone hear that yell in their respective states? But more than the lingering twinges of that particular sharp pang is the fact that they are rather precipitously lowering the dosage on the pain pump. It is a major hassle because Lisa Marie wakes up from naps in pain unless someone is pushing the pain pump button for her in her sleep.

We are down from yesterday's (lowered) amount of 30 mcg per hour maintenance infusion and 25 mcg per push of the button (possible every 6 minutes) to 10 mcg per hour maintenance infusion and 10 mcg per push of the button. This has been somewhat inadequate to the task at times. It is more than a bit inconsistent to refer to some advice as comprising mutually incosistent positions for her to need longer sleep periods to get to the deeper periods of sleep while simultaneously having constant interruptions and now reduced unprompted infusions of pain medication. I have to this point resisted the tempation to attempt to surreptitiously reprogram the pain pump, but the possibility remains on the horizon.

So she is much transformed from the octopuspider of last week. Only a small fraction of the lines and tubes of just a few days ago continue to emanate forth from Lisa Marie's weary and wounded frame. With clear fluids and solid foods off somewhere in the horizon I am hopeful for a discharge this weekend followed by a return to Houston within 24 or less hours. A return to a bedroom invaded not by nurses, but by snuggling offspring in the form of Hayden Swat King, Trevor Gaptooth, and Juliette the Cute. When instead of being inspired by pictures of her children, Lisa Marie can again cuddle with the real thing.